Return on Intention

Its official, Obama has won the American Presidency. As I was watching the coverage of the election on MSNBC.com, at least twice it was mentioned that the Obama campaign will go down in history as one of the best run and innovative in many many years. The primary means of his win, according to the MSNBC broadcast, was the internet. Is there any doubt left that the internet is changing the world?

With the American economy ( and much of the worlds ) slowing down, advertisers are most likely going to look for alternative and hopefully cheaper ways of attracting customers. One possible method for doing so is through Pay-Per-Click search marketing.

In general, Pay-Per-Click advertising has been considered a cheaper, or at least more measurable means of advertising compared to traditional media. In many respects this is true; however, a fully integrated campaign utilizing multiple media channels always produces the best results. Given the slowing of the market, I expect that we will see companies move to more measurable means of advertising as a way to try and get the most bang for their buck. 

As more companies move into the Pay-Per-Click model and more keywords are receiving bids, it should be safe to say that the cost for bids will go up to get the same results that current advertisers do. This could have some big impacts on smaller fixed budget adervertisers, but there are some ways to combat the rising prices.

1. Make sure your site is coded to help your page score. Having good markup and well written copy will increase your page score with the large search engines. Page rankings play into the cost of your adwords showing up. If two companies bid approximately the same amount for a keyword, the one with the highest page rank will get the higher position.

2. Geo-Target your ads. By reducing the size of the market you could reduce the size of your competition. Geo target your campaigns so you can lower some of the areas bid prices and save some money.

3. Bid on more specific phrases and words. If you are bidding on keywords for computer repair, it might make more sense to split your campaign into “MAC computer repair” and “PC computer repair”. The more specific your words and phrases, the less competition you will have for those words and phrases so you can bid lower.

Remember to keep and eye on your analytics, and if you don’t have any analytics installed on your site, whether you are advertising online or not, contact me immediately.  Watch closely how your ads are performing and pull what ever isn’t working and throw the money into what is. 

Getting results online does not come from any silver bullet or killer ap. The way to get real sucess (the kind you can measure) is by system creation. 

Any business initiative requires a cyclical process of planning, executing and analyzing, and the web is no exception. I have been hearing from a lot of business owners lately their disappointment with the web as a business tool. After further examination, its no surprise. Some web developer convinced them that a website would solve all their problems and give them the moon. The business owner or executive hires the web developer, they plan and launch the site. Then the web developer walks away and the business owner waits for the world to change. Is there any wonder that they are disappointed?

The web requires the same cyclical process than any other business effort requires. The launch of a website is not the end of the journey, but the beginning. Just like other initiatives a companies web strategy needs to be tested, measured and analyzed and then changed based on the insights that were gained. Then the process repeats. Every successful web property has gone through these steps, every one of them. Its the only way to ensure success. Your website is no different. The secret to getting online results is not some software you install on your server, or even a clever advertising technique. Its trial and error. Its fail fast and fix faster, and that requires a budget, a goal and attention. Just like there are no shortcuts in business, there are no short cuts on the web. 

Tmobile is the proud new papa of the G1, the first Android based phone for sale on a major network in America. Android is the linux-based open source platform created by Google for cell phones. So now Apple and Google both have a product in the market… so who’s is better?

Well, for style and cool factor of the user interface, the iPhone wins hands down. The G1 is an ugly phone, but hey, its only the first Android based phone, so give it some time. Both the iPhone and the G1 are both 3G phones, both have the real web through their webkit (safari) based browsers, both have push email (gmail only for the G1) and both have a chat style texting client. So far, there is no way to link the G1 to a computer, no list style voice mail, no GPS or cool two finger screen manipulation on the G1. Of course the G1 does have one thing the iPhone doesn’t, a full physical querty keyboard. 

Of course, at this point we are overlooking the most important part of both the iPhone and the G1 ( or more specifically Android), they are both open to developers. Android is a fully open project, but both Android and the iPhone have accessible SDKs. Any developer on the planet can now make an application for either or both systems, an application that no one else thought of. The cell phone is becoming democratized. With mobile adoption rates soaring and mobile connectivity becoming ubiquitous, the cell phone is becoming a true digital lifestyle assistant, and now it can be programmed for every lifestyle. 

Whether you are an iPhone lover of a Android zealot, remember that the best is yet to come.

When it comes to writing headlines, take your time and do it right. The headline is one of the most important parts of your blog posting because thats what people most often see in a search result to decide whether to click through and read your post or skip it and go on to a different one. 

I have been reminded of this fact again recently when I was checking the analytics on this blog to see what people are reading. My second most read post is this one - Would you sell your subscribers email address?

This post is not reaching the right people, as the number way people are finding it are by searching for “How to sell email addresses.” This group is obviously not the group that I’m trying to reach with this post, and this post is probably not what this group is looking for. The bounce rate for this post is in the high 80% range. Perhaps I should have titled it “How to piss off your customers”, or “The fastest way to lose your customers trust”… but alas, there it is. Think about your headlines and make sure they are sending the message you want your audience to receive. 

To make good on the promise on this headline, go check out this post from CopyBlogger entitled 10 sure-fire headline formulas that work- they got it right on.

Its amazing to me that I have been in New Mexico for over 5 years and it was only recently that I found that there is intelligent life in the web community. Today was the first ABQ web geeks meetup that I attended, and after this last weekends barcamp, I am happy to report that there is a good, smart web community in New Mexico. 

I was astounded that around 40 people showed up to O’Neils Pub on Central Ave tonight from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. There they were, real web folks. Some were shop owners, some were with start-ups, some were employees, but all were on top of their game. There wasn’t a table based layout in sight. I even heard that a large NM ad agency is working studiously to get their design department up to speed on the web. That may not sound huge, but for NM its a good step in the right direction.

Maybe its just me, still high from the excitement of a thriving community, but I think its time for another sprint. A big one. Keep your eyes peeled at the ABQ web geeks community at Duke City Fix, the Refresh Albuquerque Google group and this blog for more information. 

I would love to see this sprint take on not one, but two or three non-profit websites in a weekend. Get ready…. This is going to be good.

This isn’t my official post BarCamp post, but it will have to do for now. My router was in use throughout barcamp, so when I got home at night I had no internets. I haven’t really had a chance to blog about barcamp, post flickr photos or anything else and now that the event is over, I’m sick. I guess I should be thankful that I got through at least half of BarCamp before getting sick, but it now leaves me feeling completely drained and fuzzy headed. So, I will have to write a meaningful post later, but in short, BarCamp Albuquerque Rocked. I am super happy with how it all turned out. I have hours of audio to go through, and I will publish what came through as I get them done. I have a lot of crazy deadlines right now, so please be patient, but until I return, watch this… again (this isn’t new, but still great).